The 58-year-old's spell in caretaker charge is set to continue for the visit of The Tykes, having first taken the team against Blackburn Rovers last weekend following the departure of Alex Neil.

Discussing how the past week has gone at the club's Colney Training Centre, Irvine told Norwich City TV: "The players have trained extremely well and their application has been what we would have expected.

"It's been no different to how they go about it on a daily basis. The professionalism has certainly been what we'd expect too.

"Every single player has done the job that you would expect them to do. Blackburn was a real test for us and we showed great character in coming back.

"That says a lot for them."

With just nine games of the regular season now remaining and the Canaries some way off sixth place, Irvine believes it is still too early to write off the current campaign.

"We've got a big gap to make up and there's no doubt that it's going to be extremely difficult for us to get into the play-offs," he explained.

"However, there are 27 points to play for. There are enough points there if we were able to get them all.

"That's an extremely hard task, some people might say it's an impossible task. If you look at every game, on its own, we're capable of winning them all.

"I don't look at any of the games and think 'I don't expect us to win that one'. That doesn't mean that each of those games isn't extremely difficult, because they are.

"We've got a lot of games against teams who are above us in the table which clearly says they're going to be tough games. I look at each game on paper and if we play to our best we're capable of winning them."